• 5000 Observations & Stats

    30 October 2011 - 9:00am — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    A major milestone today 30 October at 09h36 with Gigi's observation of Cape Weed (Arctotheca calendula) at Riverlands Nature Reserve - yet another record from our Bioblitz there in spring.

    Well done everyone. Thanks to all who contributed to this major achievement!

    Some statistics to follow soon.

    Special congratulations to:

  • Urgent call for Orobanche records

    24 October 2011 - 11:45pm — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    It appears that there may be more than two species of Orobanche in South Africa.

    SANBI, under the Early Detection and Rapid Response programme is busy collecting specimens and DNA of invasive species in South Africa.

  • 4500 records on 19 October

    19 October 2011 - 5:28pm — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    Another Milestone: 4500 Observations, with lynmac's sighting of Spotted Eagle-Owl (Bubo africanus) at Dreyersdal Farm, Bergvliet, Cape Town.

    Well done everyone. Thanks to all who contributed to this achievement!

  • THREE INTERNS FOR ISPOT

    7 October 2011 - 4:32pm — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    The South African National Biodiversity Institute is hosting three interns to help with iSpot. These will be shared part-time with CREW (Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers) under Ismail Ebrahim, and the Fynbos Restoration Programme and the Alien Invasive DNA programme under Sarah-Leigh Hutchinson and Tony Rebelo. Their iSpot component will focus on setting up Bayesian Keys and getting community involvement in Ispot via schools, friends of nature reserves and education programmes.

    This is where you come in: We need to please know:

  • New Taxonomy features loaded

    1 October 2011 - 7:31am — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    Since iSPot uploaded the southern African Plant and Animal Taxonomy, users now have access to the latest names as per the South African National Biodiversity Institute official list of names.
    New features just added are:

    A taxonomy search.

    In the search box, type in any taxonomy rank you want (class, order, family, subfamily, tribe, genus*) and iSpot will find all identified records in that group. Find the taxonomy selection in the "Taxonomy tab." (Alternatively you can search within the taxonomy tab).

    A taxonomy tree.

  • South African Red List now linked to iSpot

    30 September 2011 - 2:00pm — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    At a click on iSpot you can now see the Red List status, population trends, distribution (with maps where available) and more photographs (when available) for all species that have been officially assessed to date.

    How cool is that?

    At this stage, this means only plants, as the other groups are still being assessed, but they will come online as soon as their assessments are finalized and uploaded onto the SANBI Red List site.

  • ISpot Maps Upgrade

    26 September 2011 - 6:57pm — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    The iSpot maps have now been upgraded for southern African settings. The following changes are effected.

    1. Your MySPot>Map will now open showing the area over which you have submitted your observations. This can be as small as your street neighbourhood if you have been home based, or the entire subcontinent if you have ventured far and near. Apart from using it to check on your progress, please also use it to check for odd observations that may have spurious coordinates.

  • Our Species Dictionary is loaded!

    24 September 2011 - 12:33am — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    Our Species Dictionary is loaded!

    All validly named species are now linked via the dictionary. These species can immediately be recognized by the heading "Taxonomy links" appearing above the "Add an observation" box on the upper right-hand side.

    Three levels of taxonomy are shown. Clicking on any one will display all records on iSpot for that level. Typical levels are "Family", "Order" and "Class", but some groups have much finer classifications, with several intermediate levels.

  • 3000 records on 15 September 2011

    15 September 2011 - 7:59pm — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    A Major Milestone: 3000 Observations, with jacquesvdmerwe's sighting of Pajamabos - Lobostemon fruticosus at Burgherspost Wine Estate, Darling.

    Well done everyone. Thanks to all who contributed to this achievement!

    The bird users have cleared out the "help with confirming observations" for birds: there are currently no unidentified birds on iSpot ZA. Mammals though have some obvious species that need checking! Please remember to look at the lower carousel if you feel like an identification challenge.

  • MILESTONES!

    5 September 2011 - 10:59pm — tony rebelo
    iSpot TeamBotanical Society of South Africa A-teamCape Bird ClubEntomological Society of Southern AfricaFriends of Tokai ParkProtea Atlas ProjectSenior Scout AdventureSouth African National Biodiversity InstituteSouth African National Parks Honorary RangersToyota Enviro OutreachWestern Leopard Toad Volunteer

    Today has been phenomenal. Suddenly, within 12 hours, we have passed several milestones:

    2500 Observations, with Vergenoegd's sighting of Sparaxis grandiflora at Baden Powell Dr, Macassar. It was almost as if the race was on, suddenly a burst of records arrived at about 16h30, and the milestone was history with 3000 observations firmly in the sights.

User login